Thursday, May 13, 2010

Braves thoughts..

Interesting to see that heading into Wednesday’s Braves game, the offensively-challenged Braves have 3 players in the top 25 in all of MLB in OBP. Obviously, Heyward is one as he is in the top 10 at .423. But, how about the other 2 - none other than Brian McCann and Chipper Jones. Even though both are hitting under .250, they still are getting on base at a very solid rate. Chipper is just .004 off his career OBP, and McCann is almost 50 points higher than his career rate.

What does this mean? Well, first off, these numbers are possibly due to the poor hitting of the bottom of the order. Why let Chipper and McCann beat you when the outfield is a combined ~.200 with no power? Also, it means that the outfield woes are the sole problem in the lineup. Glaus has been about as productive as you could hope for, Heyward better than expected, and Chip/B-Mac have been OK. The Chip/B-Mac could be producing more runs, but that is part of the overall problem.

The Diaz-McLouth-Melky combo is absolutely killing this team. There is no apparent solution besides hoping one gets hot and maybe playing Hinske a little more. Someone needs to step up and jump-start the offense. The likely candidate is McLouth, having been an All-Star in the past and having the speed/defense combination. He simply has to get it going.

We are also closing in on the first full 162 game stretch with Tommy Hanson in the rotation. Once he hits the 36 start mark, look for an update on how dominant he has been...